MY LOCAL (AFSCME 3506) ENDORSED USLAW and sent several delegates to the
founding and second conference. I was one. I know and respect many activists
in USLAW, including some superb members of its steering committee: still, I
stopped reading the statement below after it said that USLAW 'succeeded in
moving antiwar resolutions through unions like AFSCME...'. What are the
facts here?

I was a delegate and participated in the AFSCME convention caucus that
decided the tactics we'd use to get the word NOW in place of the meaningless
phrase 'as soon as possible' in the AFSCME resolution at our June Anaheim
convention. Without that, the resolution meant whenever. Bush could've used
that language. Matter of fact, he does. If this was a USLAW achievement,
what would a defeat look like?!

Also, USLAW's majority of voting bodies refused to support the Million
Worker March on Washington set for October 17th despite a majority (9:8)
steering committee vote to endorse and despite the MWM's working class
demands, including getting out of Iraq (see attached). Those demands and
this March exactly fit what USLAW delegates voted to build, yet no support.
The excuse? It might detract from electing Kerry, who supports the very war
USLAW was founded to oppose!

'Ordinary' working people can easily distinguish between supporting and
voting for Kerry and standing up for what we need through this March. They
know that Kerry and the Dems support not one of our needs and demands.
Apparently, AFL top leaders, like Sweeney, don't want to see anything
that'll put demands on 'their friends'. Apparently, many of the key people
running USLAW are in the same boat. FACTS are facts.

As for individual membership, ask them what the voting arrangements are.
Typical locals are asked to pay something like 20-100 times per capita as
larger union bodies and get something like 1/10th the voting rights. Our
Local supported both conventions and sent delegates; I attended both as one
of our delegates.

These USLAW decisions remind me of the now-defunct Labor Party's politics
and organization: crush everything that might displease the AFL bigshots or
might actually build some working class power not controlled by them and
their (lesser) evil, pro-capitalist, Democratic Party friends.